'Night and Day' promises music extravaganza in major showcase for County Roscommon
Lough Key Forest Park will host the popular Night & Day Festival.
With less than 50 days to the big event, this year’s Night and Day Festival promises to be yet another music extravaganza with a stellar line-up of musical acts such as Paul Brady, Jose Gonzales, KT Tunstall. Once again, this year’s festival will also be supporting emerging and local musical performers.
This year’s festival takes place from June 27th to 29th at Lough Key Forest Park. A limited number of weekend and family tickets are available as well as daily passes for the three day event.
Night and Day Festival is supported by Roscommon County Council and Coillte. The weekend promises to be a major boost for local tourism in the county as thousands of music lovers are expected to descend upon Boyle.
Tourism Officer with Roscommon County Council Lisa Joy said the Night and Day Festival shines a spotlight on the rich heritage of arts and culture that makes Roscommon truly unique.
“Night and Day Festival has become one of the premier independent family friendly music festivals in the county. We are delighted this year’s event is once again being staged in Boyle in the wonderful natural amphitheatre that is Lough Key Forest Park.
“While visiting the county we invite concert goers to visit some of the many other attractions our county has to offer such as King House, Boyle Abbey, Strokestown Park House, the Rathcroghan Visitor Centre and many other attractions nearby.
“Connectivity to our many visitor attractions through our extensive rail and bus links has never been easier. As a county, Roscommon has a fine tradition in music, culture and heritage, so we warmly invite concert goers to avail of the many attractions we have on offer.
“Recently a promotional campaign ‘Breathe in Roscommon’ was launched to highlight the rich outdoor recreational amenities the county has to offer. There are also a number of other festivals taking place in Ballaghaderreen, Boyle and Castlerea this summer with another highlight being the return of the prestigious Irish Hot Air Balloon Championships to Boyle later in September,” said Lisa.
Now in its fourth year, the Night and Day Festival is firmly established as one of the country’s premier events, as promoter Craig Hughes explained: “We’ve got an amazing musical line-up and are bringing acts such as Jose Gonzalez, Paul Brady, KT Tunstall, The Wailers, Lisa Hannigan, Fionn Regan and the Sultans of Ping to Roscommon, to name just a few.
“We’ve added two extra stages this year, which we think festival goers will really love. The first is the Electric Cave stage which will be on the embankment beside the visitor centre overlooking the lake. It will have chilled out sing-songwriters playing on it from midday to 8 p.m. each evening.
“Then we have the Sol Stage that will be located inside the 150ft Moylurg Tower. DJs will be playing from the tower to the crowd below. The tower itself will be covered in live animation from high powered cameras which is set to be really spectacular.
“As always we will have a full schedule of family friendly fun for our junior attendees. The festival is an over 20s event, but under 14s can attend with a parent/guardian with a children’s ticket (€2).
“We’re so grateful to everyone who has supported Night and Day so far. Setting up and independent festival of this scale is incredibly difficult, both financially and logistically, and we wouldn’t have been able to do it without the support of the people of Roscommon.
“Around 30%, approximately one-third of our attendees are from Roscommon and we hope that each year more people from the county come to see what we have created and be part of a really amazing weekend.
“We’ve been very fortunate to enjoy the support of Roscommon County Council, Coillte and all the staff at Lough Key Forest Park who have helped to make our dream become a reality. We’re hoping that the 70% of our attendees who come from outside of the county will get a chance to also see the great tourist attractions the county has to offer,” Mr Hughes said.
• For tickets visit www.nightandday.ie/tickets.
